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Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Punjabi Kala Channa Masala !

Kala channa (Black Chickpeas) is a protein rich and delicious curry that goes well with both rice and rotis. Though I include this regularly in our diet, my favorite always remains the White chickpeas / Chole. I love black chickpeas with fresh coconut and made in the Kerala style than this Punjabi Masala. You can check the Kerala Kadala curry HERE which is often served with appam in Kerala.

In south this black chickpeas (aka Mookadalai) is made mostly in form of sundal. I will post that recipe too shortly.

Add ginger garlic paste and fry everything well till they become slightly browned.

Add tomato puree and allow it to cook for 4 - 5 minutes.

Then add green chillis, salt and all spice powders and give a mix.

Allow to cook for another 6 - 7 minutes till the masala is well cooked.

Add the boiled chickpeas and the water in which it is boiled.

Reserve a fistfull of chickpeas and grind it to a smooth paste .

Simmer the gravy for another 10 minutes (or close the cooker and give one whistle),

Stir in the ground chickpea paste and sprinkle garam masala. Turn off stove after 2 minutes.

NOTES

Instead of pressure cooking the chickpeas first , you can add the soaked chickpeas directly to the sauted onions n tomatoes and add masalas, water and then pressure cook for 3 - 4 whistles to make it a simple one pot meal.

Instead of pureeing tomatoes, ass finely chopped tomatoes too.

Make it no onion and no garlic by just skipping them.

Adjust spices as per taste.

To make the gravy thicker, I have ground some boiled chickpeas to a paste and added. You can skip this, but doing this not only makes the gravy thick but also increased the taste.

If you want the gravy to be little tangy , add some whisked curd / yogurt atllast and let it come to boil in medium flame. Or just squeeze lemon juice as a last step after turning off stove.